"Huh where am I?"
Lucian had went to sleep last night in his own house and his own bed, but the sight he was met with had him confused, wondering where he is. If this is a prank initiated by one of his friends or perhaps even a dream, a lucid one at that.
He got up from the wooden bed and the rough mattress, looking around and seeing slim wooden bookcases, candles lighting up the dim room with a single window, cloaked with a dark red curtain. A wooden chest, desk and chair alongside the stone fireplace.
He rubbed his eyes, thinking he was hallucinating but all was the same.
"Am I being pranked?"
Lucian looked around the room and everything met with his eyes was unknown, unrecognizable. He stood up and walked around. On the table were notes, one which looked freshly written, a couple days at most.
When his eye caught sight of the date up right on the note, he was stunned. 'September 15th, 1272'
"What..."
He looked in disbelief, not having any thoughts about it, believing that he is in fact dreaming.
"Time to wake up nowww..."
Lucian formed a fist and punched himself in the leg multiple times but nothing happened.
That's when he noticed his attire, what he was wearing. It was a slightly dirty black shirt with rolled up sleeves and blue trousers, also dirty especially on the knees with dirt.
"This much gaming is not healthy.. This can not be real."
He continued looking around and a door, which had gone by unnoticed previously, had practically appeared and he walked through it and was met by the sight of a woman and a boy eating at a table.
The woman was older and the boy was young, around the age of 12. She welcomed Lucian with a smile and invited him to the table, grabbing a plate.
"Excuse me, but where am I?" he asked all confused and almost disoriented.
"Ah, but of course" the woman spoke, placing the plate down and pouring some mahakam potato soup. "When traveling back home, to here, I found ye in the dark forest all alone, unconscious and in yer underwear. At first, I believed ye were a young drunk one for the Black Ones that had been stripped and left but that seemed to have not been the case when I smelled ye breath."
"You smelled my breath..? Where even are we?"
The smell of the soup was too great, to an extent that the room entirely smelt of even with the windows and door opened.
"What do ye mean?" the woman asked him, putting a spoonful of the soup in her mouth
"Okay.. What is your name miss and what is this place we are in called?"
"Ah. I am Anika and this is my grandson Bowie. Where we are at is Valoria, a village far south east of White Orchard."
Lucian's eyes dwindled through the window, seeing people commune outside, making it similar to the game he's so been obsessing about, still in disbelief and reminiscing if this is a dream or not, a weird and perplexed dream.
It began to make sense in his obsessed head, not hearing the things Anika had been telling him and sitting down at the table just now.
"Are there monsters in this world?"
"Of course there are monsters, have been for hundreds of years last I checked. Say, are you sure you're not high?"
"I assure you that I am alright. Say, have you heard of a white haired witcher named-"
"Geralt of Rivia. Ay, I have." the old woman responded in between the spoonful.
Lucian's eyes lit up as this was one of his dreams dream, but only that, a dream. Until now.
In the real world, in his world, he was a high schooler of the age of 17 who apart from videogames, liked to go to the gym and train and occasionally dabbled in different things. His family wasn't poor nor rich, so he was always chilling. He was a good guy in person too, not having any enemies and having a few close friends in a large group of friends.
But now...
It was like all of the possibilities of playing a fantasy game of his own were possible.
Lucian picked up the spoon and began to eat, asking questions in between spoonfulls.
"Do you perhaps know where I can find Geralt of Rivia?"
She waved her head left and right and Bowie too. Unfortunate, but it's the way it is. His name may go around from Dandelion's bards but his whereabouts not.
"What's the situation with King Radovid and the Emperor?"
"The same as usual. They're at each others throats, gaining and regaining control and constantly battling, losing men in the process."
Lucian was confused about that part. The game, as he knows, takes place in May when he's in White Orchard, so how is it still like this 4 months later... Geralt, to his knowledge and his favorite ending, saved Cirilla and made her live after the White Frost, and after that had Radovid win.
So did something change? Is his presence in the game he's in, or in this reality now, changing the course of events that the end has in store for them... A lot of questions and no answers.
On the bright and lucky side, he knows a lot about the game. Not everything, but a lot. So if he's going to survive, it'll be at least easier than being stranded in a reality where he knows nothing of.
Just being in his thoughts mentally, and physically in the quiet room of Anika's house where he finished the soup, he afterwards quickly stood up and confidently asked her if she has a sword in the house.
"Before I give ye a sword, I'll require ye name and where yer from." she said, having also finish her soup, only with Bowie remaining with 1/4 left and eating at a quick pace.
"Lucian.. Of Valoria."
"Valoria?! I've never seen ye around these bits and ye sure aren't someone I'd forget. I do guess anything is possible... So how about this, ye go find the one called Richard and do what he requires and afterwards I'll give ye a sword. After all, ye are residing here for free."
"I guess that's fair. Alright then. How will I recognize Richard?"
"He's a fat fella, wearing a sleeveless leather tunic and having a bushy beard that looks like a nest of a bird. Richard also wears a cap due to his balding head and will most likely be at the Rusty Willow Inn. Ye can't miss it, it's got a large sign upfront."
"Noted. Well then, I'll be back."
Lucian opened the door and his eyes were hit by the blasting sun in his eyes, having to look away for a moment and cover his eyes with his forearm after walking out. It caught him by surprise.
"This will be a piece of cake."